Devastating Blow for FARC Rebels

[Judi Lynn]

Devastating Blow for FARC Rebels
By Constanza Vieira

BOGOTA, Sep 23, 2010 (IPS) - The death of guerrilla commander Luis Suárez, aka Jorge Briceño or "Mono Jojoy", is a "devastating blow" for Colombia's FARC insurgents, military affairs analyst Ariel Ávila told IPS. Briceño, who was killed in a bombing raid on his camp Wednesday by government forces, was a member of the Secretariat of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), which were founded in 1964. His death was announced Thursday. He commanded the Eastern Bloc in southeastern Colombia, which covered nearly 40 percent of the territory of this South American country of 1.1 million square kilometers.

The raid by government forces, which involved 700 to 800 troops and heavy bombing, began Sunday and continued through Thursday. In the attack on Briceño's camp, U.S.-made smart bombs were dropped from Super Tucano war planes purchased from Brazil. The missiles were apparently guided by a chip that had been smuggled into the rebel leader's camp in an intricate intelligence operation that may have involved informers or infiltration of the guerrilla forces. The bombing raid took place in a valley between the towns of La Macarena, La Uribe and Vista Hermosa, in the Sierra de La Macarena National Park in central Colombia, one of the birthplaces of the FARC.

Sources on the ground described the bombing as "brutal" and "devastating," and said "they burnt everything." Some 50 bombs were reportedly dropped. "Even if you combine the deaths of (Manuel) Marulanda, Raúl Reyes and Iván Ríos -- all three together weren't as heavy a blow as this," said Ávila, the head of the Armed Conflict Observatory of the Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, a Bogota think tank, referring to a series of losses of FARC leaders in March 2008.

That month, FARC founder and top leader Marulanda died of a heart attack at age 78; the group's international negotiator Reyes was killed in a bombing raid similar to this week's, across the border in Ecuador; and Ríos was betrayed and killed by his own men.

Briceño's death is "a devastating blow," Ávila repeated, "in first place because he was well-loved within the FARC: he was the legendary leader who replaced Manuel Marulanda" in the esteem of the campesinos who make up the troops of the left-wing rebel group. Marulanda was succeeded by Alfonso Cano, an anthropologist at the National University in Bogota who, according to Ávila, "is seen as a city man" by the rank-and-file.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52953

[gbscar]

1. Mixed feelings about this. "Mono Jojoy" was, without doubt, a boastful and aggressive FARC commander

...who was unquestionably responsible for many of the direct and indirect consequences of the guerrilla group's infamous military offensives -particularly since ~1995- and widespread kidnappings; the use of gas cylinder bombs and mortars leading to "collateral" damage; indiscriminate threats against all sorts of personalities and officials regardless of their individual virtues and vices; acts of terrorism; armed blockades and incinerations of vehicles; murders of hostages and other civilians; electoral sabotage and intimidation; the repeated destruction of infrastructure that leaves thousands of Colombians living in darkness, isolation and fear; displacement; the use of landmines and many more activities that should probably be described in far more detail than what is usually found in this forum. If FARC's crimes are overrepresented elsewhere, here they are often forgotten.

That the Colombian State and the paramilitaries are, yes, proportionally responsible for even more bloodshed cannot possibly justify minimizing FARC's abuses to the point of hypocrisy, at least in my opinion, since you cannot have a war without two combatants.

If "Raúl Reyes" was ostensibly a diplomat, then "Mono Jojoy" was most certainly a warlord. As such, to say that he got what he was asking for would be an understatement. And since he was hiding in a concrete bunker, then one might even argue that there was a degree of readiness on his part.

However...from a purely humane point of view, it does not make me happy to see the celebration of death rather than that of life. To put things in perspective, at the very least, the fact that someone like "Mono Jojoy" -as well as his counterparts in the Colombian government and among the existing paramilitary groups- believes that more death is the answer to any and all of the real or perceived tragedies that gave birth to this conflict and its continued degeneration is a rather macabre concept. Past a certain point, the value of human life has become almost nothing and what we have is a continuing cycle of violence.

Whatever justifiable or legitimate grievances are involved on all sides, peace is an urgent necessity. The government's promises of security and FARC's promises of social justice are little more than fleeting illusions that cannot possibly last as long as Colombia is at war.

[Peace Patriot]

2. What I have seen happen in Colombia's SEVENTY-YEAR civil war is the U.S. use of this civil war

--particularly by the Bush Junta--first of all, for war profiteering purposes ($7 BILLION in U.S. military aid to the Colombian military, which has one of the worst human rights records on earth, plus more billions to the U.S. military and U.S. military 'contractors' to expand their presence in Colombia and the region); second, to encourage the murder of union leaders, teachers, community organizers, human rights workers, peasant farmer leaders and anyone who opposes the fascist government in Bogota--to prepare the bloody ground for U.S. "free trade for the rich"--and, third, very likely to use the utter lawlessness that has been funded and stoked by the U.S. in Colombia to "train" operatives for Iraq and Afghanistan in covert assassinations and possibly mass slaughter.

The U.S. State Department recently "fined" Blackwater for its "unauthorized" "trainings" of "foreign persons" (not sure who) in Colombia, "for use in Iraq and Afghanistan." This "fine" smells of a coverup. What was Blackwater DOING in Colombia?!

One of the areas where a mass grave has been found--one containing 500 to 2,000 unidentified bodies--is La Macarena, where this Colombian military use of U.S. "smart bombs" just occurred--an area of special interest and activity by the U.S. military and the USAID, which designed the "pacification" program that resulted in this mass killing (a "pacification" program that has many resemblances to the one being employed in Afghanistan). Local people say the bodies are of local 'disappeared' community activists and members. It is also suspected that some are "false positives"--innocent civilians murdered and then dressed up like FARC guerrillas, for the Colombian military commanders to up their "body counts" (and earn rewards for it).

One other comment on the above--especially with regard to possible U.S. military involvement in killing Colombians: Last year, Bush pal Alvaro Uribe and the Bushwhack ambassador to Colombia, William Brownfield (who only left that position last month), did several highly suspicious things: 1) They secretly negotiated and signed a U.S./Colombia military agreement that grants total diplomatic immunity to all U.S. soldiers and all U.S. military 'contractors' in Colombia; and 2) They secretly extradited a number of key witnesses in death squad investigations and trials, to the U.S., where these witnesses were buried in the U.S. federal prison system (their cases completely sealed), putting them out of the reach of Colombian prosecutors, who strongly objected to this.

The promoters of this U.S./Colombia military agreement--which has other provisions, such as U.S. military use of at least seven bases in Colombia--stated that the agreement merely ratified existing arrangements. Why did Brownfield need a SIGNED immunity agreement, last year, after eight years of the U.S. military doing whatever it damned please in Colombia, under the Bush Junta?

When the death squad witnesses were extradited (and charged with mere drug trafficking in the U.S.), the Colombian prosecutors were promised access to them, for their cases in Colombia. Access has been denied. Why?

Do you know that the La Macarena grave was discovered because local children became sick from drinking the water in La Macarena. There were so many corpses decaying in the graveyard that it polluted the water. That's what the above set of facts and circumstances smell like--a mound of rotting corpses.

I do NOT condone FARC violence, but I have to say that I am struck by statistics like those from Amnesty International that 92% of the murders of union leaders in Colombia are committed by the Colombian military (about half) and by their closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads (the other half). The FARC, 2%. That proportion of violence holds up in statistics for all 'extrajudicial murders' (union leaders and all others) in a recent UN report. These statistics tell me just what you are saying in the last part of your comment--that Colombia is caught in a CYCLE of violence for which there is only one solution: peace. No more killing. No more U.S. tax dollars devoted to the killing of COLOMBIAN CITIZENS (whether FARC guerrillas or peaceful civilians). No more U.S. "smart bombs" dropped on anybody's camp, village or farm. No more U.S. provision of high tech spying capabilities to the Colombian military. No more U.S. use of the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs" as the cover for solving the "labor problem" in Colombia, by killing labor leaders (almost 40 of whom has been murdered so far this year) and murdering and terrorizing people who are merely exercising their civil and human rights.

The Colombian military has also displaced 5 MILLION peasant farmers, with state terror, including murder, toxic pesticide spraying of peasant farms (compliments of U.S. corporations) and other horrors. Most have been driven into urban squalor (creating a slave labor pool with no options and no rights, for Colombia's elite and for U.S. corporations). About a half a million have fled into neighboring Venezuela and Ecuador, where human rights are respected--but also creating a huge humanitarian and border security problem for both countries.

It is not so easy to totally condemn the FARC guerrillas for their violence, given this U.S.-supported war on the poor and given how much worse--by orders of magnitude--the Colombian military violence is. If you saw a family member or friend hacked to pieces and his or her body parts thrown into a mass grave, or tried to participate in political life and saw your leaders gunned down, one after the other, or any of these horrors committed by the Colombia military and its death squads, against your community, what would YOU do? Some people would be sorely tempted to take up arms, as their only option. Many people want to find a better way to achieve social justice. I am among them. But I will not mention FARC kidnappings or murders without discussing scale and context--including U.S. use of this civil war for warmongering purposes, and also the rampaging poverty in Colombia.

One more thing: Over the last half decade, I have seen the U.S. sabotage efforts at peace in Colombia's civil war--the bombing of Raul Reyes's camp and production of the infamous "miracle laptops" being one example of it. (Reyes was arranging hostages releases in a bid for peace. After he and 24 other people were slaughtered in cold blood, with U.S. "smart bombs," probably delivered by a U.S. plane and pilot out of the Manta base, Uribe & co. claimed to have obtained Reyes' laptop--later, laptopS--from the bombed out ruins of the camp, and then claimed it contained "evidence" that Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, and Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, were helping the FARC to obtain a "dirty bomb" and other wild charges. This bombing atrocity, just inside Ecuador's border, almost started a war between the U.S./Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela, then and there.)

The U.S. has taken one side in a very long civil war--something it should never have done. U.S. money SHOULD NOT BE USED TO KILL COLOMBIANS, no matter what they have done--let alone to provide killing fields for U.S. "trainings" or to create a strategic launching pad for "full spectrum" U.S. military activities in Latin America. Our goal should have been a peaceful settlement of this civil war, and it never has been. Why? Because our policy is driven by war profiteers and by U.S. multinational corporations who want to steal other peoples' resources and labor to fatten their already ungodly profits. This has been the policy of virtually all U.S. governments, including the current one, for the last 50 years, with the Bush Junta being the worst (in a close contest with the Reagan regime). What the Obama administration seems to be doing is arranging for U.S. corporations to benefit from Colombia's "killing fields"--with the U.S. "free trade for the rich" deal--and helping to cover the bloody trail of the highest placed perpetrators (including possibly our own).

Yes, peace in Colombia, absolutely. I agree! Tell that to the Pentagon. Tell that to Blackwater. Tell that to the U.S. State Department. Tell it to Occidental Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Monsanto, Chiquita, Dyncorp and all the other "players" in this bloody, awful game. Why don't you condemn them for their massive violence and cruel exploitation? Take Chiquita, for instance, whose execs hired Colombian death squads to murder trade unionists on Chiquita's farms. If one of those trade unionists had been your brother or your father, would YOU do? Hard to forgive, eh? It's a hard, hard lot that the Colombian poor majority faces. The wonder is that there is anybody left in Colombia who can speak the word "peace" without crying or raging.

[gbscar]

3. At least we share our ultimate hopes for peace regardless of our conceptual and factual differences

...such as those concerning many specific statements, terms, figures, historiographic labels and assumptions as well as any number of nuances (or their absence) found in your reply to my post.

However, we certainly disagree about how to arrive at that peace if the gist of your argument is that the U.S. should stop interfering, that multinationals should get the hell out and that all non-FARC violence should cease first. I would be absolutely willing to assume that position and agree with those statements if they also included a similarly strongly worded call for FARC to do the same.

That is not a matter of proportionality or one of orders of magnitude -though I also happen to directly disagree with some of your statistics for reasons that will be expanded later in this message- but one of principle.

To put it another way, let's use one example for the sake of simplicity...if for every 1.000.000 people who have suffered at the hands of the Colombian State there are only 100.000 who have suffered because of FARC and other guerrillas...keeping relatively quiet about this smaller proportion of victims isn't going to be morally justifiable in the least nor is it going to help anyone find peace.

And when you're dealing with numbers that are in fact higher than those above, the "smaller" figure isn't exactly forgettable in any way, shape or form...or it might be forgettable here in the heat of debate, but not in the real world out there.

Not to mention all of the instances where the responsibility for abuses overlaps, or cases where different groups make the same people suffer in different ways, but I guess that it's probably easier on the surface to paint everything with a broad one- or two-colored brush and not worry about such things (ie: you're either labeled a State victim or a FARC victim, period, and should only feel rightful anger against one of the two parties involved). But there are families where they literally have nowhere left to run, as all sides have hurt their fathers, sons or daughters at some point in time. Brothers even end up fighting for opposing factions.

And let's not forget, to use another example, that there are people who have been displaced by FARC -or even just by the fighting as a whole- among those 5 million Colombians who have left their homes since 1985, as it's not just the exclusive responsibility of the State and the paramilitaries no matter how much more blame they deserve. Have you ever thought about those people?

In the end, I definitely believe that peace needs a willingness to make many compromises, socio-political and otherwise, and demands a detailed acknowledgment of the painful crimes committed by both sides. That is necessary, because the truth is not what either side finds most convenient or most horrible, it's the reflection of an ugly and complex reality in all of its shameful dimensions.

If you're going to go into incredible detail about a few of the many horrible crimes committed by the State -directly and indirectly since you're including the paramilitaries and the U.S. and multinationals- and yet tend to present FARC's many direct and indirect crimes as almost an afterthought or as an explainable reaction to all of the previous violence, it would appear that's not a proper reflection of the cyclical nature of the conflict nor a fully accurate representation of the many forms of violence involved (including but not limited to all of the victims and horrors both of us have already described).

Unless you believe that non-union and non-political murders or any other abuses still related to the war -including some for which FARC has a far higher share of the blame- are not worth taking into consideration when citing statistics and making condemnations...I believe there should be no argument for NOT considering at least some of the other angles and presenting a more comprehensive description of the conflict.

I believe we could well discuss many of the specific issues all day and night without reaching an agreement because I'm sure we aren't working from the exact same set of sources and facts, proven or otherwise, as well as due to conflicting ideological, political and philosophical inclinations and theories that color each of our respective interpretations.

Nevertheless, I will address a mere couple of them here. I would like to respectfully request that you post a full reference or link to the UN report that supposedly attributes 92% of ALL political murders to those forces that are not FARC and the rest of the guerrillas (including the ELN). You've been mentioning those statistics without any challenge so far, but it is only natural for someone to request their actual source. You're under no physical obligation to do so, of course, but think about it.

Is that a yearly figure or one for a specific period? Or do you mean that it refers to all of the political violence in Colombia's conflict to date (and since when?)? I believe that last possibility -which I admittedly consider doubtful- can be questioned further by referencing other sources.

For example:

In cases where a perpetrator was suspected, 73% of these killings were attributed to paramilitaries, 17 percent were attributed to guerrillas, and 10 percent to state agents. These figures did not include combatants killed in action.

http://books.google.com.co/books?id=LdWZrfsdqAEC&lpg=PA109&ots=UFzWnshpLP&dq=human%20rights%20watch%20world%20report%201999%20colombia&pg=PA109#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Colombian Commission of Jurists reports that the daily average of politically motivated homicide has doubled in the past three years to almost 20 members a day. In 2000, almost 85 percent of these murders were attributed to state agents and paramilitary groups, with the remaining 15 percent to guerrilla groups.

http://wwww.watsoninstitute.org/bjwa/archive/8.1/Essays/Tate.pdf

In Colombia’s decades-long civil war, appalling human rights crimes are committed by all sides: the leftist guerrillas who took up arms in 1964, the security forces and the far-right paramilitary militias.

But the latter, whose leaders are drug traffickers or have ties to the drug trade, are blamed by the United Nations for 80 percent of all killings, while the insurgents are held responsible for 12 percent and the security forces are blamed for the rest.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43696

I would say this is a lot more than the mere "2%" you seem to speak of, no? It's about six or seven times that.

Perhaps your numbers for who is responsible for the shamefully high number of unionists killed are more accurate, but even then that obscures the larger point: neither political or union murders are the only forms of violence in Colombia and, if you presume it's all that is worth talking about, this would mean ignoring hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of victims who have also suffered directly and indirectly because of the actions of FARC -and even those of the State!- that fall outside of those categories.

How many people have been victimized by FARC's armed blockades (also known as armed "strikes"), when they surround towns and literally starve them for days on end by blocking all forms of travel and burning those buses and trucks that dare to challenge this prohibition? Or how about the people whose villages were destroyed either partially or totally by gas cylinder mortars for the sake of blowing up a police station during the mid-1990s and onward? Have you tried to estimate those figures?

Are you aware of the fact that Chiquita, before paying the paramilitaries to kill unionists, also gave tens of thousands of dollars to FARC per year as part of extortion payments for almost a decade? They've admitted as much in the same court documents and I'm sure they are not the only multinational that has directly provided funds to both sides.

Or how about the violence that has taken place between the guerrillas themselves and their real or perceived civilian supporters and sympathizers in unions, schools, peasant associations and other social organizations? Such as the FARC vs. EPL confrontation in Córdoba and Urabá during the 1980s and 1990s or the FARC vs. ELN vendetta in Arauca that has only recently cooled down. Sure, the number of these deaths is very small compared to the total deaths caused by paramilitaries, but that isn't exactly going to help the victims...and it illustrates that there is no moral inhibition per se preventing some guerrillas from turning against the very people they claim to be defending from State violence. Nor does it prevent the execution of numerous guerrillas who can't possibly all be the "infiltrators" they're usually accused of being by default. Nor have they failed to kill members of indigenous and ethnic groups that are already in danger of extinction and who should be protected from multinationals trying to get their resources.

If the Colombian justice system is full of impunity for State and paramilitary abuses, aside from some notable exceptions...then does FARC's own disciplinary system somehow consistently and certifiably reprimand and punish their own worst crimes, including provisions for justice, reparations and truth for the victims? No, and the guerrillas also enjoy a huge amount of impunity among themselves. Even as a non-state actor, they have unavoidable international legal (and moral) obligations that they rarely -if ever- meet.

In fact, once again, one can actually argue that FARC's continued existence and violent activity has fueled the Colombian State's repression and has allowed it to reach levels that would have never been seen without having an ongoing insurgency...and not exactly a passive one, as a quick look at the news archives will show. Wars can't be fought without two sides and this one has been going on for too long already with both sides killing each other and trying to paint the other side as the devil incarnate.

Incidentally, you spoke of understanding some of the reasons why peasants and others join the guerrillas, which is certainly fair enough since I also have a human empathy for them and their plight. However, I would also invite you to think about the reasons others -not just urban citizens but also peasants as well- have for joining the Colombian military and police or even the damned paramilitaries. Many of them have very similar grievances in mind, to say the least, for crimes that have been committed against them or their families.

We're talking about a decades old conflict after all. Generations of people on both sides have lived and died thinking that more death is the only answer to all the bloodshed. No revolution, no injustice, no imperialism and no status quo can justify what has happened in Colombia. I would say that peace needs to include a lot of what you've called for, no doubt, but can't possibly stop there.

[Peace Patriot]

7. The 92% statistic is from Amnesty International for 2005.

"...cases in which clear evidence of responsibility is available indicates that in 2005 around 49 per cent of human rights abuses against trade unionists were committed by paramilitaries and some 43 per cent directly by the security forces. Just over 2 per cent were attributable to guerrilla forces (primarily the FARC and ELN) and just over 4 per cent to criminally-motivated actions.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR23/001/2007/en/b856b22d-d3ba-11dd-a329-2f46302a8cc6/amr230012007en.html

In summary, 92% of the murders of trade unionists in Colombia were committed by the Colombian military itself (about half) and their paramilitaries (the other half). That's MOST OF THE MURDERS.

Tell me how this is justified. What is the Colombian military's interest in killing trade unionists, hm?

------------------

The UN Human Rights Commission report is more recent--this year or last year. Their statistic covered all extrajudicial killings (trade unionists and all others). They attributed 70% (or 75%) of the extrajudicial murders in Colombia to the Colombia military (about half) and its closely tied rightwing paramilitaries (the other half). The proportion was the same. I cannot find this report for the life of me. I have searched for it extensively. The reports of Philip Alston (Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in Colombia, for the UN Human Rights Commission) this year do not contain the statistics I read. But I'm sure I read this statistic. What I don't know is who was responsible for the other 25% to 30% total extrajudicial killings. Presumably the FARC is responsible for some of it, but I don't know how much. I don't remember a breakdown of this other 25% to 30%. On trade unionists, AI breaks down the remaining 8% into 2% FARC and 6% other (common murders). If that percentage holds up, on all extrajudicial killings, then it's Colombian military/death squads 70% to 75%, FARC about 10%.

My point was that the COLOMBIAN MILITARY, funded by $7 BILLION in U.S. military aid, is, by far, the WORST abuser of human rights in Colombia. They are the particular concern of Alston is all of his reports. The brutal murder of innocent civilians whose bodies were then dressed up like FARC guerrillas (to up the Colombia military "kill quota") was widespread, across many regions, involving numerous military units. The murder of civilians on mere "suspicion" of their potential association with the FARC has also been widespread.

These are my particular concern because OUR TAX DOLLARS are going there--to FUND the slaughter of civilians and also to kill Colombian citizens accused of being, or presumed to be, guerrillas, without trial. This is an armed internal struggle in Colombia--a civil war. It has NOTHING TO DO with "international terrorism" (--which is what the Bushwhacks did to this civil war, formally escalated it into its "war on terror.") WHAT is our government and our military, using our tax money, DOING in Colombia--choosing sides, fomenting the indiscriminate killing of non-combatants, BOMBING armed Colombians, and supporting a government and military with one of the worst human rights records on earth?

It does not do to condemn the LESSER combatants in this civil war, without acknowledging this CONTEXT. It has similarities to the Spanish Civil War, as a matter of fact (--the fascists armed by Hitler, vs. a guerrilla force of leftists opposed to fascist rule). It also has resemblances to Vietnam (the U.S. arming one side, in an internal left/right armed political struggle--a civil war). It has definite strategic resemblances to Afghanistan and Iraq (which is more than likely why Blackwater was conducting "trainings" for Iraq and Afghanistan in Colombia). But it is most like the armed conflicts in Latin America in previous decades, in places like Uruguay, where one of the former leftist guerrillas is now president of the country!

And that, to me, is a vital point. Other Latin American countries have moved past armed conflict between fascists and leftists, by democratic means. Why not Colombia? The reason, to me, is clear: The U.S. doesn't want peace in Colombia, and has heavily armed one side (with $7 BILLION) to retain Colombia as a strategic Pentagon war asset, also for purposes of sheer war profiteering (the failed U.S. "war on drugs"), and for other kinds of profiteering--by oil, coal, farming and other multinationals.

The U.S. HATES countries that have rejected a U.S. military presence within their borders and the U.S. "war on drugs"--most especially, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. They refuse to be U.S. client states. They won't have U.S. boots on the ground in their countries. They kicked them out. WHY does the U.S. want boots on the ground in their countries? To make war on "drugs"? Ha! Only a fool would believe that. The war profiteers who drive these policies WANT OUR MONEY, first of all, poured into their pockets--for guns, bullets, armored vehicles, helmets, boots, trucks, tanks, rations, quarters, war planes, bombs, high tech surveillance, rockets, missiles, and the whole hellish product line of mass death. Second, they and the multinationals want POWER--they want to deal with rich elites who are propped up by U.S.-supported militaries/security forces and who will GIVE AWAY their countries' resources and subdue their countries' labor forces and any other opposition to "free trade for the rich" and its brutalities.

This is the consistent, overwhelmingly evident policy of the U.S. government in Latin America. And it could not be more evident, right now, than in Colombia (also in Honduras--another internal political conflict (in that case with peaceful leftists) that the U.S. intervened in, on the side of the fascists).

Colombia's conflict is essentially a political conflict that has turned into a civil war. It is not categorizable as "terrorism" unless you acknowledge that the Colombian military and its death squads are ALSO "terrorists," and inflict far MORE death, mayhem and terror than their adversaries. In that sense, I would call all armed groups in Colombia "terrorists." But such a broad, generic sense of the word "terrorism" would include the U.S. bombing of Baghdad, for instance--bombing a country with no air force, slaughtering a hundred thousand innocent people. Modern warfare IS "terrorism." And, talk about scale! The U.S. trumps all for the sheer terror of modern warfare.

Any murder is horrible. The mass killing of modern warfare is unspeakably horrible. That is why stringent efforts must be applied to PREVENTING it--not stoking it up with $7 BILLION in military aid; not manufacturing it, with lies about WMDs.

OF COURSE the FARC guerrillas should disarm. But what would happen to them if they did? Thousands were killed before, in the last disarmament. That is what they know of "peace." 'Give up your arms, and they kill you.' Given U.S. support to the Colombian government and military, that could happen again, or at least that is likely what they fear.

So they fight on. Possibly, with the fire power that the U.S. has given to the Colombian military, as well as its tacit support of mass killing, the guerrillas will be exterminated--along with tens of thousands more civilian deaths. However, the FARC have been fighting for SEVENTY YEARS. That means that, whenever FARC guerrillas are killed, others replace them. Why? Because so many poor Colombians have no other options.

MORE U.S. billions for arming one side is neither a practical nor a moral solution. More killing will not stop the killing. I would say this to the FARC if I could. Castro has said it to them. Hugo Chavez has said it them. Times have changed and there are now many leftist governments in South America to support a peace process. (The Bushwhacks sabotaged efforts at peace, but a peace process could be re-started.) And it is something that I devoutly believe in. Killing is never, ever, ever, EVER the answer. It will and does occur. It never solves ANYTHING. And if you don't address the underlying problems of a society--mainly the rich/poor problem--THERE WILL BE WAR. That is even true of WW II. Its underlying cause was Germany's poverty, created by the unwise, greedy victors of WW I, with the Treaty of Versailles. That failure left leaders like FDR with no options. At that point, it would certainly seem to have been a "just war," except for what happened afterwards--the creation of the U.S. 'military-industrial complex'--the monstrous geni that WW II let out of the bottle.

In my opinion, that is the main problem in Colombia--the U.S. and our war profiteer and corporate rulers. Their goal is extermination of the FARC and the decimation of all leftist opposition to U.S. domination of Colombia (and, indeed, throughout Latin America)--not just armed resistance, all opposition. And THAT is the Colombian military's interest in murdering labor leaders--to answer my question, above. They know what the U.S. goal is. Serving that goal is their "gravy train."

Unjust death and other horror occurs in all wars. It is especially bitter and hard to heal in a civil war. Have we not learned that pouring fuel onto such fires is the worst possible thing that could be done? Well, that is what the U.S. has become--the fuel pourer--in the interests of war profiteers and multinational corporations. It is our tragedy that we cannot stop it. Our real rulers will do what they wish.

[gbscar]

9. Thanks for providing a couple of sources and specifying the categories or years they refer to

If that percentage holds up, on all extrajudicial killings, then it's Colombian military/death squads 70% to 75%, FARC about 10%.

Arguably, that is open to debate as there are other estimates that are at least slightly higher depending on the years involved, such as those I've previously posted. In any event, as I've also previously mentioned, the figures aren't at the heart of the problem.

I believe there's nothing in my post that questions or justifies the fact that the paramilitaries and the Colombian military are responsible for MANY MORE murders than FARC, but the thrust of my argument is that: a)murders are not the only type of violence in Colombia b)nothing justifies giving the FARC a free pass not just for murders but for all other types of violence and abuse they are involved with.

If you're going to introduce terms like "terror" and "mayhem" into this discussion, it does absolutely no good to present those as the exclusive consequence of anti-FARC activities without considering that, after more than 50 years of war, MILLIONS of Colombians of all social and political affiliations have also been terrorized by the guerrillas and the consequences of their actions. That is also part of the context.

I am NOT in favor of both current and historical U.S. policy in Colombia, whether counter-narcotics or counter-insurgent, but simply opposing such interference and influence because of the horrible carnage and terror it produces without condemning the horrible carnage and terror ALSO produced by the guerrillas themselves presents an incomplete picture of the ongoing Colombian tragedy.

That is NOT helping the poor and it certainly isn't helping those among them who have been victimized by FARC...sometimes in addition to having been victimized by the State, ironically enough.

U.S. military aid to Colombia should stop, no doubt, but from that an explicit or implicit defense of FARC does not follow...nor, perhaps more tragically given the resulting indifference, absolute silence about the fallout of the guerrilla's "prolonged popular struggle" and its victims. I would say that a more complex, not a more simplistic, context is necessary here.

However, the FARC have been fighting for SEVENTY YEARS. That means that, whenever FARC guerrillas are killed, others replace them. Why? Because so many poor Colombians have no other options.

They do, in fact, have (and make use of) other options: joining the military, the police or even the paramilitaries. Are you under the impression that most of the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Colombians in the military and those THOUSANDS in paramilitary groups aren't poor, by any chance? At the very least, they can't all be bloody oligarchs, or can they? And when these people are killed, others will replace them just as well. That is the point. Both sides keep killing and others keep replacing the casualties in all of their ranks.

If the "revolution" isn't going to die out, then it is most certainly not going to "win" either.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Colombian "pacification" programs appear to refer to mass graves,

unmarked resting places for people finally "resting in peace" beyond the reach of the tortures many of them endured in the last days before their deaths.

One other gift from the Chiquita Company to the paras: huge shipments of weapons for continued use against the people of Colombia.

The government/business community there work like a well-oiled machine, all so clearly exposed to even the most reluctant ones among us to admit the truth, since the new testimonies have been piling up over time concerning Uribe's D.A.S. director, and other D.A.S. characters, all prepared lists of Uribe "enemies" marked for death and the paras carried out their orders: labor organizers, union leaders, humanitarian clergy, as we all know, educators, journalists, farmers, members of African Colombian communities, Indigenous communities, and human rights workers, etc.

The power structure is deeply entrenched, and well reinforced annually with well over $500,000.00. Life is desperperately painful for the vast population of the poor, and dispossed, and safer, and richer for those connected to the power elites.

There's no mystery about what's happening in Colombia for people who disapprove of pure, sadistic, barbaric evil. It's impossible to look the other way, and overlook something this hideous.

Thanks for putting so much care into your post.

[gbscar]

8. And FARC's "revolution" refers to kidnapping, executing and starving people too, no?

You always seem to disapprove only of a certain kind of sadistic evil, not all of it. I wonder why.

Perhaps that's not so "evil" if it's "justified" by other violence then? Do tell.

Never mind that a cycle of barbarism has been created by now, not just unilateral victimization.

Apparently FARC's victims are not of your concern, if they cannot even be acknowledged to exist.

I don't know about you, but closing one eye here is not a sign of knowledge. Quite the opposite.

[L Cutter]

4. off-topic, but:

Sorry about the off-topic, Judi, but:
DU says: "Sorry, but you don't have enough posts to start
a new thread yet."
So, how many posts does it take to get "consecrated"
at the DU?
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[b]Official Communiqué from Café Guancasco on the Repression
of September 15th in San Pedro Sula [/b]

We write to inform that this September 15 we were brutally
attacked by the police and army, while performing at the
"What Independence?" concert

We address our message of protest to all the people of the
world. We escaped with sick children in our arms, women who
had been beaten, injured youths, elderly people who had
fainted. In Honduras it is no longer legal to make art, it is
no longer legal to publicly side with the people. We send our
message of condemnation to the dictatorship of Porfirio Lobo
Sosa. Our song is nothing more than a shout of hope for
millions of people trying to free their nation, and if this
bothers him, he will have to get used to living with the
contempt of the people, which we will once again turn into
song.

[link:www.hondurasresists.blogspot.com/] 

[Judi Lynn]

5. Thanks, L Cutter, for posting this, I just reposted it a moment ago.

So glad to see you're posting here as many serious, conscientious DU'ers have been watching, reading, pondering news on Honduras since before the military coup, and the beginning of the brutal, new illegitimate government.

You are deeply appreciated. I've seen your early comments, and they are excellent.

Welcome to D.U. :hi: